Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Issue 30.2: This is heavy

I think this is probably my favorite time machine. It's still one of my life goals, owning a DeLorean. I know that there are some diehard fans out there who have tricked up their DMC-12s, but I haven't (alas) seen one in person. Last I heard, they were being put back on the assembly line for a very pretty penny. Anybody have $57,500 to spare? Just look at those gull-wing doors.

Onto our issue highlight!

Issue 30.2: Winter 2008. The cover features penguins. A legion of penguins wearing ties! This issue doesn't go too far back, but it's one of my most-read issues. So much marvelous stuff here. Much of the work has an otherworldly feel to it, dark and funny and beautiful. To name a few of the recurring motifs -- cities, ice, and bears.(And now it sounds like there are ice-skating city bears. Sorry to disappoint.)

Kevin Prufer's poem "Transparent Cities" remains a favorite, recalling fairy tales: "I fell into a snow bank and didn't wake again, / but felt, in my few moments that remained, / the flush of childhood, / and saw (until my eyeballs bleared and wouldn't close) / the snow / like killing angels over me -- / windswirl and gasp, / in every hand a needle -- and then the sting as my dull flesh / chilled and wouldn't pulse again."

In this issue, Emily Raabe also casts a new angle to the Biblical tale of Jesus and Lazarus in her poem, "An Old Story." And Katie Umans considers the comical and disturbing possibility of ostrich-parents in her poem, "The Ostriches Take a Human Child."

Ted Sanders won a 2010 O. Henry Prize for his short story, "Obit," which we celebrated some time ago. The story is incredibly striking on the page, and I remember being amazed when I first read it. It defies chronology and it's haunting:

"The boy who falls asleep to the story of the bear will grow old and wordlessly die. In the end, he will die across his pancakes, coughing up blood at a restaurant in a distant town, blood freckling the arms and throat of his latest wife, the table, the dark stone floor where bright ice and dark water from his spilled glass will also fall. All of these events occur, and more. But the boy who will become this man is still young. He still lives in the yellow house where he was conceived..."

If you'd like to read more, get your copy here! We've got 25 issues available for $5 each! Remember to include "issue 30.2" in the description box.